Re: [tuning] Digest Number 592

Hello. I've been following this list for a few months now, and have decided that I don't know enough of the fundamentals yet.... Can any of you recommend a list of books that would help me get started? In particular, I'm interested in the mathematics behind tuning theory and notation used when talking about scales and such (e.g. what all those nifty ascii pictures with all the dotted lines mean).

Thanks,

Shaun Van Ault
(3rd-year comp major at Oberlin Conservatory)

--
"The trouble with 'avant-garde,' originally a term in military tactics,
is that it assumes the adventures of individual and small-group experimenters to
be justifiable only as they may open up a terrain through which some larger army
will then be able to pass. "
-V. Thomson

>Hello. I've been following this list for a few months now, and have
>decided that I don't know enough of the fundamentals yet.... Can any of
>you recommend a list of books that would help me get started? In
>particular, I'm interested in the mathematics behind tuning theory and
>notation used when talking about scales and such (e.g. what all those
>nifty ascii pictures with all the dotted lines mean).
>
Shaun,

I would recommend David Doty's _Just Intonation Primer_. It is free with a
membership in the Just Intonation Network. Here is the info from their web
site (http://www.dnai.com:80/~jinetwk/):

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To Order The Just Intonation Primer

The Just Intonation Primer is available exclusively from the Just
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To get a taste, you can view the first chapter from this web site, but
things like lattice diagrams are discussed later in the book. It's very
readable and the best simple introduction to this topic. Of course it
doesn't go into equal or other temperaments, but it does answer most of the
mathematics/notation questions you mention.

Other good books are Harry Partch's _Genesis of a Music_, which is a much
more detailed, idiosyncratic view of just intonation; Murray Barbour's
_Tuning and Temperament: An Historical Survey_, which is still probably the
best survey of the history of European tuning systems, despite its
lamentable bias towards 12TET (doesn't really cover the
notation/mathematics questions you ask, though); and John Chalmer's
_Divisions of the Tetrachord_, a stunningly comprehensive survey of
different tuning systems from the tetrachordal perspective, together with
the mathematics, history, etc.

Best of luck.

Bill

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